More misery for Munster

Leinster talisman opens up some old wounds after the fifth successive victory in the past year and a half leaves their rivals traumatised

FIFTEEN years ago, on a bitter December Saturday in Thomond Park, Munster and Leinster met for the first time in the professional era. Leinster extended a nine-match winning streak that afternoon in front of a crowd that barely amounted to four figures. In terms of hype, razzmatazz and reach-out appeal, that match was played in a vacuum.

In terms of what we witnessed with 50,000 others at the Aviva stadium last night it may as well have been played in black and white. This was showbiz: gaudy, loud, self-important. The piped music boomed from the speakers at concert pitch, there were searchlights and fireworks whose post-ignition smoke lingered over the field like a Dickensian fog for a few minutes after kick-off.

Set aside the Heineken Cup, which operates in a different sphere, this was Irish domestic club rugby on a scale that was unimaginable at any time in the professional